Learning Ladyhood has moved!

Today is an exciting day: the Learning Ladyhood blog is now completely moved in to its very own website!  As a new school year begins, it seemed like the right time to switch and begin publishing my new posts only on the new site. You can still find all my posts, old and new, as well as some other soon-to-be-published resources by visiting www.learningladyhood.com 

You can also subscribe to my email list there. I send out a short email with a link whenever there is a new post, and also give updates on my other writing projects once in a while.

Thank you for visiting my blog, and I hope to see you at the new site! 

~Gwendolyn

Stilling a Busy Mind

Have you ever felt like your mind isn’t cooperating with your heart when you’re trying to pray? I am particularly prone to distraction, and it can be a struggle to keep my mind focused during my time with God. There are a couple things I’ve learned from Scripture that have helped me.

The first thing that helps me is 2 Corinthians 10:5:

“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

I have a very active imagination, and when I’m praying, it likes to take my thoughts as far as possible down its own road of what-ifs and conversations that might happen, or anticipatory imaginations of how the events of the day will go. When I realize this is happening, I ask God to help me cast down my imagination, to take my thoughts captive. –And you know what? It works! Sometimes I have to do this multiple times during my time with God in a given morning, but it does help me get back on track and focus, and as I'm careful to do that, my imagination runs away with me less and less.

Sometimes it’s not just my imagination, though. When there’s a situation bothering me or a pressing issue weighing on me, I need to stop and yield those things to God before I can get my mind focused on praying about other things. Proverbs 16:3 says,

 “Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.”

When I am submitted to God, and acknowledge His right to allow any circumstance He deems best in my life, it is much easier not to get bogged down with analyzing and stressing over things beyond our control. What I need to do instead is to give those things to the Lord, because they were never meant for me to carry: they have been in His hands all along!  It’s amazing how much easier it is to focus when my “works” are committed to God.

Once I have surrendered all my distractions to the Lord, I can then truly do as God is calling me to:

“Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10)

Daily Mercies

Today, as I sit down to write, there is a lovely cool breeze stealing in through the open window, perfumed with the scent of a fruitful garden on a warm day. The room is flooded with natural light and whichever window I look out of, I see trees. Looking around me, I see many things to be thankful for: my air conditioner, the chair in which I sit to write, (an heirloom from a grandmother), four bookshelves stuffed with books, a laptop, a tablet and a multitude of journals in which to write, my favorite fountain pen nearby, and nick-knacks everywhere that remind me of things God has taught me and people I love. I can hear the muffled voices of my family in other parts of the house, and the street is quiet, with birds singing and only an occasional car passing. This morning, I am struck by just how much there is to be thankful for.

I am reminded of a Scripture passage that has been very dear to me over the years:

“This I recall to mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:21-23)

God’s mercy is not limited to salvation. He has shown Himself merciful on the grand scale of redemption, but He also shows Himself merciful every day. These “daily mercies”, as I like to call them, are all around us, even when we are too self-absorbed or distracted to notice them.They should be a constant reminder of His mercy and care for us.

But don’t get me wrong: the grander demonstrations of God’s mercy are enough for our hearts to live on for eternity, but to those great mercies, He has added innumerable others, little touches of His mercy sprinkled here and there throughout our every day. As Charles Spurgeon once wrote:

“God is so good that every moment of His love demands a lifetime of praise.”*

When I think of all that God has done for me, I cannot help but feel as Jacob did when he told God, “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which Thou hast shewed unto Thy servant”(Genesis 32:10)

 

 

 

*Spurgeon, Charles. The Practice of Praise p.43-44

The Value of Encouragement

Two summers ago, I was hard at work on a research paper about Fort Stevens. It was my second research paper for that particular professor, so I knew I had to work hard for the A+ I so desired.  He was a stickler for good quality sources and proper punctuation in citations. He was probably one of my strictest professors, and I had him for two terms in a row. Although he was strict on the academic details, he was also kind when I reached out for help or had a question. And, most importantly for me, he chose to be an encourager.

When I received my grade from the first paper, I noticed that he said it was well-written. That was a complement, indeed, and I was thrilled, but didn’t really think about it much after that. I was just happy my professor was pleased with my work.

The next class I took from him was even harder and required me to write quite a lot. The paper was the final project, and I worked even harder, digging up sources, and taking notes, even taking a couple "field trips" to gather information. When it came time to write the paper, I spent the whole day in my room writing the draft. I usually could type up a pretty good paper in a couple hours, but this one had to be longer and the punctuation in the citations had to be perfect. I wanted an A+.

When I got my grade back, I was again delighted that my professor mentioned something about the paper being well-written. He was a historian, and I knew he could tell good writing when he saw it, so to be told by him a second time that something was written well made me think.

I’ve always enjoyed writing, and in college I would often breeze through my written assignments, enjoying the quest for just the right word or phrase.

My very first college professor (English class) had encouraged each of us to start a blog for the purpose of practicing our writing, and I had, but no thought of “being a writer” had ever occurred to me until that last round of college classes and that one professor who said my paper was well-written.

I don’t know why it sparked ambition in me –I’ve never been ambitious. But it did. I began to think seriously about being a history writer. I asked my professor if he thought my paper would be helpful to the historical society of the place I had written about, and he said he did. Then I began to think about other topics I could write about.  I didn’t have a degree in history, nor did I have anything else to recommend me except my research skills, but I knew I wanted to write, and history had always been a favorite topic of study.

Then the school year started, and I was too busy to think of doing any in-depth research projects. The months flew by in a flurry of schoolwork and ministry work. The next summer I researched the Tillamook Burn, but when it came to writing about it, I just didn’t seem to be able to begin.  Again, the school year intervened, and brought with it a busy schedule and the need to focus on what was before me. 

But as spring arrived, God shifted my plans about writing, and guided me to renew my efforts on this blog. He showed me that He wanted me to write about the things He was teaching me, and to focus my writing on truths from His Word. And here we are.

This summer, I am a writer. Now, that doesn’t mean that writing is my “job” for which I get paid, (yet) but rather, that I have finally admitted that writing has been a part of me all along, and now I’m seeking to use that part of me for God’s glory as He directs. Lord willing, I will have two short works in print by the end of the fall, the first of which is that same research paper from the history class, and the other is a short devotional. There are several more books in the works, and it has been so exciting to see just how far God has taken my writing in the last year.

And as I finish up this summer of "taking writing seriously", I have never been more grateful to that professor for his ministry of encouragement and the words God used to redirect me!

"And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works" (Hebrews 10:24)

--Dear reader, who is it that God wants you to encourage today?